gwoody27

I am a new member and owner. Just bought my 8 from St. Catherines Mazda and was pleased with the experience. It was a dealer returned car originally bought in June 03, returned due to the horsepower mis-statement to Mazda Canada in Sept 03, sold to St Catherines Mazda in Jan and they put on 3,000 km from April to June. I got it at 8,000 km on June 10 and now have 9,700 km. They have been great to deal with and they did the M flash upgrade and both recalls. The car is outstanding and exceeds my performance expectations.
I live in Etobicoke and my question now is to get service from St Canarines or switch to a GTA dealer. Any suggestions about good/bad local dealers?

spaceman

Any dealer is fine. You don't have to go back to St. Cath.

spaceman

p.s. interesting handle.. I used to play baseball with a guy from Etobicoke about 20 yrs about nick named woody. Could it be you?

Sharky

I've been happy with the service at Downtown Mazda on the Laksehore. I'd suggest you ask for Bernie the Service Manager and tell him you were recommended by SHARX8. Every time I refer someone to them, they are treated very well.

gwoody27

Spaceman, I am not the Etobicoke ball playing Woody, spent most of my life in Mississauga, sorry. Thanks for the info.

gwoody27

Sharky I will try Downtown and let you know. It's good to build on someone else's good experience

T-Ren

Just picked up some parts for my 8 at downtown. Dealt with Eugene, very brief meeting but very easy to deal with and was very straight forward.

Others i've dealt with was bad from the start, where they size you up before you say a word.

ZoomZoom

First of all congrats on your 8!

I've been taking my Mazdas to Westowne Mazda in Etobicoke for about 10 years now and I never had any service problems - give them a try.

Where in Etobicoke are you?

gwoody27

Hey ZZ, thanks for the info. I wasn't impressed with Westowne's Sales guys but will look into the Service people. I am at Kipling and Eglinton. Haven't seen a Blue 8 around. Where are you?

BARK

I had the recent misfortune of having Dave Wood Mazda up in Newmarket do an 8,000km "service".

They charged me $76 for an oil change (despite the $27 National Oil Change campaign), and proceeded to fill the engine with 5 litres, not the 3.5 litres specified in the manual.

When I brought this to their attention, their response was to basically blame me for complaining, because, of course, they claim that it didn't happen.

Completely pathetic.

Cheers

ZoomZoom

I live near Westowne Mazda, I can walk there in about 3 to 4 minutes.

Let me know if you would like to come out for some wings one evening, 73JPS (Titanium) and I typically get together on Tuesday evenings. Call me on my cell anytime if you are interested (416-729-8107). We frequent Ferg's which is located on Yonge Street in North York, a little south of Finch on the west side - great wings.

blue beach

Hi Guys,

Can you fill me in on the connection between sales and service at dealerships?

I bought from a broker, but went a long way down the road with downtown mazda. In the end, the broker was simply cheaper and downtown mazda was not very happy with me.

Should i avoid them for service now? Or will that matter at all?

Thanks,

blue beach

ZoomZoom

You can have your 8 serviced at any Canadian dealership and I assume that if you had a breakdown in the States that wouldn’t be a problem. As for myself, I purchased my car at Achilles Mazda and had service performed at Achilles Mazda, Westowne Mazda and Avante Mazda. The service department will enter your VIN into their computer system to ensure that it qualifies for the free service due to the 9 HP loss.

I would rate the service as very good at all three of the above dealerships.

blue beach

Thanks Zoom,

I guess i was wondering more about whether the frustration of the sales staff would bleed over into bad service.

Either way, the good words from Toronto owners about Scarboro Mazda and Dave Millband led me to make an appt there.

I've had the car for a week, and love it to death but think my alignment is slightly off, something Dave said he's seen before.

Anyone else feel like the transmission is "notchy"? Don't know how else to describe it ... have read same in some reviews. Not a huge nuissance, but doesn't feel quite right. Might work itself out as the car wears in a bit.

blue

MyRxBad

iTrader: (1)

I had my 2 recalls done at Downtown Mazda... The service was ok...
Only thing I didn't care for was the service manager asked me (both times I was in there) where I got my car from... (what does it matter!)

personally when I was searching for my car (last fall), I wasn't impressed with Downtown Mazda's salesman. I asked about the Rx-8 there (knowing that they wouldn't have one to test drive) or in stock and then I asked the salesman about price and he had to go to another guy for the answer. Basically I ended up waiting about 1/2hr for this other guy and got fed up and left. ALso when I was searching for my car I told every salesman that I'm going to buy the car for sure, and have done all my reasearch, I'm just looking for the best price...


Take from that what you will...

hobbes

I service my car a Avante Toronto, and have no complaints, Ted is the service manager there and is great to talk to. Plus it's a newly rennovate dealership. I bought my car from there too, since they let people have test drives and the price was great! I haven't tried the service at the other Avante, but Neo said they are good as well. I will probably try them out since they are closer to the homestead.
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Chrysler Europe History

ZoomZoom

Yesterday Avante performed the 32,000 Km service on my baby and as usual service was very good. I've had my car in for it's regular service, both recalls and the ECU flash; the work was always done on time and to my satisfaction.

Smoker

Hey Hobbes, just curious, wouldn't Avante Richmond be closer to you ???!!

hobbes

Yes it would. Since I bought my car from the toronto location I just got it serviced there for the time being. I'll be going to try them out with the first oil change and see how they are. If anyone has had their 8 serviced there, I would like to know who I should speak too and how they are.

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JAILBROKEN

gwoody27

I have had service done at both Westowne Mazda on Dundas W in Etobicoke and at St. Catharines Mazda and both were well done with good followup. The service Manager Sandra in St. Catharines is especially good.

Hybrid-RX8

Had my car serviced at Avante in Richmond Hill..great guys. good service..recalls and flashs

cubakid

Anyone tried Morningside Mazda yet? I bought my RX-8 through the Internet (cars4u.com), and they arranged for pick up close to home.

Once at the dealership, I was asking questions about oil checks, the manual says every 2 fill ups, but the service manager said at the first scheduled maintenance. (I guess he was thinking "change" instead of "check".) What is the real answer?

As an aside, I would highly recommend CARS4U.com for anybody who hates the haggling at a dealership.

I had done the test drive at a dealership north of Toronto (with my 83 year old mother who adored the car on sight - mind you the last car she loved this much was my dads 1970 Dodge Challenger!), and I had also got the dealer invoice pricing from Carquotes.ca (well worth the cost) As expected, the sales guy MSRP'd me all the way, went to the manager, back and forth, blah, blah, blah. I walked away, but he kept calling for a month (and only marginally adjusted the price). One simple e-mail to CARS4U.com, got me a great price and all the options I wanted (moonroof, side vent gill looking things)

Great service, great delivery (and a complimentary flashlight/toolkit to keep in the trunk!). Would do business again with them in a heartbeat!

PS - my 8 is a red GT 6M and her name is Raquel

apaul

Have been very pleased with Whitby Mazda. My 8 is the third vehicle (2000 Miata, 2004 Mazda6) I've purchased or leased there. Really top notch service, friendly, knowledgable sales, service staff and mechanics...shuttle or loaners available if you make arrangements ahead. My cars always come out of the garage gleaming~ washed,dried, vacuumed and tires 'dressed'. One or two days later there's a followup phone call to verify that everything was done, when promised and to my satisfaction. Hard to beat.. The owner, Peter, is a gem, which sets the tone for the whole operation, IMO

If Whitby is too far, Ajax Mazda down the road westward has two top notch mechanics who were at Whitby. However, as I have had few dealings with Ajax, except for shopping models and prices, in fairness, I am unable to comment on this dealership.

TODreamer

Whos the Salesperson that you dealt with? I live close by and dropped in there... not necessarily impressed...I have a story about that Dealership but its nothing safe to post on the internet.